1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to a method and apparatus for reducing contagions on an object and, more specifically, to method and apparatus for suitably exposing an object to be used in a substantially-sterile environment to a disinfectant, which can optionally be a sterilizing agent.
2. Description of Related Art
Sterile, or at least substantially-sterile environments are common in the medical field for treating patients with minimal risk of infection. To avoid exposing patients in such environments to infectious organisms medical personnel working therein are required to take precautionary measures. All personnel are required to wash thoroughly before entering the environment, and wear items of clothing such as surgical scrubs that have been decontaminated.
Other objects such as medical equipment can also be contaminated with infectious organisms, and can pose a threat to introduce such organisms into the sterile environment. Bedding, medical devices, and virtually all other objects brought into a sterile environment must undergo sterilization procedures to minimize the risk of infection to patients. Labels for identifying medications, personal possessions, tissue samples, or any other object within a sterile environment are among the other objects that must also undergo a decontamination procedure. More recently, portable electronic devices such as tablet computers, for example, have become useful within sterile environments such as an operating room during a surgical procedure. The tablet computer can store a large volume of electronic images and other data that can be reproduced by the tablet computer without requiring separate hardcopies of each such image just in case one of the various different images is needed.
Traditionally, blank labels have been sterilized by the manufacturer and then sealed within an individual wrapper before the wrapped labels are distributed to hospitals or other end users. Likewise, pens that are to be used for hand writing label content on the blank, sterilized labels are also sterilized by the manufacturer and sealed in individual wrappers to be distributed to the users in the medical field along with the packaged and sterilized blank labels. In use, a blank label in its wrapper is retrieved from a bin storing such labels along with a wrapped pen. The wrappers enclosing both the label and the pen are opened by personnel within or near the sterile environment, and the label content is hand written onto the sterilized label using the sterilized pen. However, this traditional method and system for providing customized sterile labels in the medical field is prone to errors due to illegible handwriting and data omission.
Printing label content onto labels using a computer printer can help mitigate the problems posed by illegible handwriting and data omission. However, computer printers print label content onto label stock that is not suitably sterile for use in healthcare facilities upon completion of the printing process whereby the label content is applied to the label stock.
Electronic devices such as tablet computers and notebook computers, for example, pose additional problems when being considered for use in a medical environment. Their cases include apertures, seams, internal compartments and a variety of other structures where infectious organisms can hide from a disinfectant or sterilizing agent utilized as part of a decontamination process. Thus, even when exposed to such a decontaminant or sterilizing agent, infectious organisms hidden at such locations on an electronic device can be unknowingly transported into the sterile environment. There is no accepted sterilization method and apparatus that renders portable electronic devices such as tablet computers suitably sterile for use in a sterile environment.